Thursday, 6 September 2018

“Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything”. Nike and Kaepernick, Round III



“Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything”. 

That's the new Nike Kaepernick campaign. Isn't it fatuous?
You mean "something" as in anything?
You mean "everything" as in nothing
Surely it matters what the "something" is. Colin Kaepernick believes there's a tidal wave of police killing black men. In this belief he's wrong. But it's not wrong to highlight homicides of young black men, their leading cause of death. For which the leading cause is other young black men. That would surely be worth a knee swivel. 
But then Colin also believes in the wonders of Cuban communism
Should we sacrifice "everything" for that?
Meantime, Colin, well, he's sacrificed nothing. In his last playing season he was 32nd out of 32 quarterbacks. In other words, he was the worst quarterback in the League. That's why he wasn't picked up by any team. Not because he was taking a knee. But because he'd had a great rookie year then fizzled for five. That happens. 
Then he took a kneel. 
And now he has a multi-million dollar contract with Nike. With a fatuous slogan. 
So, again, what precisely has our Colin sacrificed? = nothing nada zip. He's made a buncha. 
And what, precisely, has Nike sacrificed? Again = niente rien meiyou. 
They also plan to make a buncha from the Black Dollar. 
I could forgive Nike and Colin their gross hypocrisy if they do pivot to focus on the real problem in the young black male community. Together they could really make a difference. Instead of this sick-making virtue signalling. (To be fair to Colin, in his case it may be ignorance rather than duplicity. I've yet to hear him say a sensible word in support of his knee jerk anti-copness. He did wear some police-pig socks to a training camp. As a "statement". So there's that). 
Colin's piggy cop socks
Imagine actual programs in actual cities supported by Nike and Colin to address the actual issues of actual black boys' homicides. Now that could make a real difference; instead of wearing piggie socks. 
I'll sign off with a cheap shot. The Left loves to hurl Hitler and nasty nazi tropes at Trump and his minions. How about this: the fatuous Nike slogan fits full well with the world's favourite bogey man. Adolf certainly believed in "something". Vide Mein Kampf. And he certainly "sacrificed everything". 
So it's a silly, maybe even dangerous slogan, as well as fatuous. 

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